Adaptive Strategies for Small-Handed Pianists brings together information from ergonomics, physics, biomechanics, anatomy, medicine, and piano pedagogy to focus on the subject of small-handedness. ...
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Adaptive Strategies for Small-Handed Pianists brings together information from ergonomics, physics, biomechanics, anatomy, medicine, and piano pedagogy to focus on the subject of small-handedness. Chapter 1 presents an overview from historical, anatomical, and pedagogical perspectives and includes a discussion of small-handedness as a risk factor for piano-related injury. Chapter 2 establishes a basic understanding of work efficiency and the human anatomy, moves on to general observations about piano playing and the constraints of physics, and explains the principles of healthy movement at the piano. Chapter 3 is a focused analysis of piano technique as it relates to small-handedness. Chapters 4 to 7 deal with specific alternative approaches: redistribution, refingering, ways to maximize reach and power, and musical solutions for technical problems. Hundreds of examples taken from the standard intermediate and advanced piano literature show concrete applications of these strategies within appropriate musical contexts. Chapter 8 presents tables that pianists can use to diagnose and resolve commonly encountered problems and synthesizes the adaptive approaches outlined in the book. Reflective application points are provided as guides to further exploration. The book demonstrates that the specific physical and musical needs of the small-handed can be addressed in sensitive and appropriate ways and illuminates alternative paths to help pianists with small hands reach their musical goals.Less

Adaptive Strategies for Small-Handed Pianists

Lora DeahlBrenda Wristen

Published in print: 2017-12-28

Adaptive Strategies for Small-Handed Pianists brings together information from ergonomics, physics, biomechanics, anatomy, medicine, and piano pedagogy to focus on the subject of small-handedness. Chapter 1 presents an overview from historical, anatomical, and pedagogical perspectives and includes a discussion of small-handedness as a risk factor for piano-related injury. Chapter 2 establishes a basic understanding of work efficiency and the human anatomy, moves on to general observations about piano playing and the constraints of physics, and explains the principles of healthy movement at the piano. Chapter 3 is a focused analysis of piano technique as it relates to small-handedness. Chapters 4 to 7 deal with specific alternative approaches: redistribution, refingering, ways to maximize reach and power, and musical solutions for technical problems. Hundreds of examples taken from the standard intermediate and advanced piano literature show concrete applications of these strategies within appropriate musical contexts. Chapter 8 presents tables that pianists can use to diagnose and resolve commonly encountered problems and synthesizes the adaptive approaches outlined in the book. Reflective application points are provided as guides to further exploration. The book demonstrates that the specific physical and musical needs of the small-handed can be addressed in sensitive and appropriate ways and illuminates alternative paths to help pianists with small hands reach their musical goals.

This book tells the remarkable and inspiring story of the British early music movement (Early Music). Since the late-1960s this quietly influential cultural phenomenon has completely transformed the ...
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This book tells the remarkable and inspiring story of the British early music movement (Early Music). Since the late-1960s this quietly influential cultural phenomenon has completely transformed the way in which we listen to ‘old’ music, revolutionizing the classical music profession in the process. Forty years on, the influence of historically informed performance (HIP) is everywhere to hear, in concert halls around the world, on radio and on disc. And yet the extraordinary rise of Early Music, founded on its apparently uncompromising agenda of ‘authenticity’, has been anything but uncontroversial. Early Music’s detractors have been quick to point out the many inconsistencies andin-authentic ‘modernist’ practices that underpin its success, highlighting its use of recordings, reliance on the market, and even its creativity (‘making it up’), as evidence ofits just notbeing what it said it was. The story of making Early Music work in the modern age(an age of disenchantment, division and split), is riven with conflict and contradiction; but it is also an altogether more upliftingnarrative about ‘re-enchanting art’, of living out the unfolding dialectic between old and new, head and heart, ‘text’ and ‘act’; and of over-coming separation, restoring the bonds betweenelements of life that we have otherwise become accustomed to holdingapart, such asour musicianship, scholarship, craftsmanship, and cultural entrepreneurship. Beyond itsfocus on the performance of classical music, therefore, this book offers the opening remarks ina much-neededconversation about the value of art and authenticityin our lives today.Less

The Art of Re-enchantment : Making Early Music in the Modern Age

Nick Wilson

Published in print: 2013-11-27

This book tells the remarkable and inspiring story of the British early music movement (Early Music). Since the late-1960s this quietly influential cultural phenomenon has completely transformed the way in which we listen to ‘old’ music, revolutionizing the classical music profession in the process. Forty years on, the influence of historically informed performance (HIP) is everywhere to hear, in concert halls around the world, on radio and on disc. And yet the extraordinary rise of Early Music, founded on its apparently uncompromising agenda of ‘authenticity’, has been anything but uncontroversial. Early Music’s detractors have been quick to point out the many inconsistencies andin-authentic ‘modernist’ practices that underpin its success, highlighting its use of recordings, reliance on the market, and even its creativity (‘making it up’), as evidence ofits just notbeing what it said it was. The story of making Early Music work in the modern age(an age of disenchantment, division and split), is riven with conflict and contradiction; but it is also an altogether more upliftingnarrative about ‘re-enchanting art’, of living out the unfolding dialectic between old and new, head and heart, ‘text’ and ‘act’; and of over-coming separation, restoring the bonds betweenelements of life that we have otherwise become accustomed to holdingapart, such asour musicianship, scholarship, craftsmanship, and cultural entrepreneurship. Beyond itsfocus on the performance of classical music, therefore, this book offers the opening remarks ina much-neededconversation about the value of art and authenticityin our lives today.

Artistic Citizenship: Artistry, Social Responsibility, and Ethical Praxis examines the many ways that artists (amateur and professional), community artist-facilitators, educators, and scholars in ...
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Artistic Citizenship: Artistry, Social Responsibility, and Ethical Praxis examines the many ways that artists (amateur and professional), community artist-facilitators, educators, and scholars in music, dance/movement, theater, visual arts, poetry/storytelling, and media and technology conceive and deploy their abilities to advance democratic citizenship and human flourishing in local, national, and international contexts. Among the questions this book addresses are the following: What is the nature and scope of artistic citizenship? How do artists and scholars in different domains conceive the aims, concepts, practical strategies, problems, and “spaces and places” of artistic citizenship? What are the most effective strategies that artists, teachers, and students use to address local, national, and world problems, including violence and international conflicts, poverty, disease, and gender and racial discrimination? What qualities and abilities do amateur and professional artists need to practice, develop, and expand artistic citizenship? What connections exist between ethical-artistic action and artistic citizenship? What is the history of conceptualizing the “why, what, how, who, where, and when” of artistic citizenship? Do particular artistic endeavors have distinctive potentials for nurturing artistic citizenship? If so, what might they be? How can artistic citizenship be pursued without compromising the natures and values of particular artistic practices? What can arts education programs do to motivate artists of all ages and abilities to better serve their communities? How might artistic endeavors informed by a pragmatic “ethic of care” contribute to positive societal change?Less

David ElliottMarissa SilvermanWayne Bowman

Published in print: 2016-11-24

Artistic Citizenship: Artistry, Social Responsibility, and Ethical Praxis examines the many ways that artists (amateur and professional), community artist-facilitators, educators, and scholars in music, dance/movement, theater, visual arts, poetry/storytelling, and media and technology conceive and deploy their abilities to advance democratic citizenship and human flourishing in local, national, and international contexts. Among the questions this book addresses are the following: What is the nature and scope of artistic citizenship? How do artists and scholars in different domains conceive the aims, concepts, practical strategies, problems, and “spaces and places” of artistic citizenship? What are the most effective strategies that artists, teachers, and students use to address local, national, and world problems, including violence and international conflicts, poverty, disease, and gender and racial discrimination? What qualities and abilities do amateur and professional artists need to practice, develop, and expand artistic citizenship? What connections exist between ethical-artistic action and artistic citizenship? What is the history of conceptualizing the “why, what, how, who, where, and when” of artistic citizenship? Do particular artistic endeavors have distinctive potentials for nurturing artistic citizenship? If so, what might they be? How can artistic citizenship be pursued without compromising the natures and values of particular artistic practices? What can arts education programs do to motivate artists of all ages and abilities to better serve their communities? How might artistic endeavors informed by a pragmatic “ethic of care” contribute to positive societal change?

All children must have an opportunity to share the joy of choral music participation—whether in school, church, or community choirs. What happens before the singing begins is critical to supporting, ...
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All children must have an opportunity to share the joy of choral music participation—whether in school, church, or community choirs. What happens before the singing begins is critical to supporting, sustaining, and nurturing choirs to give every child the opportunity to experience the wonder of choral singing. Based on years of experience conducting and teaching, this book brings practical information about ways of organizing choirs. From classroom choirs, to mission statements, boards of directors, commissioning, auditioning, and repertoire, the book aims to inspire new ways of thinking about how choirs organize their daily tasks. The collaborative community that surrounds a choir includes conductors, music educators, church choir directors, board members, volunteers, staff, administrators, and university students in music education and nonprofit arts management degree programs.Less

Before the Singing : Structuring Children's Choirs for Success

Barbara Tagg

Published in print: 2013-04-25

All children must have an opportunity to share the joy of choral music participation—whether in school, church, or community choirs. What happens before the singing begins is critical to supporting, sustaining, and nurturing choirs to give every child the opportunity to experience the wonder of choral singing. Based on years of experience conducting and teaching, this book brings practical information about ways of organizing choirs. From classroom choirs, to mission statements, boards of directors, commissioning, auditioning, and repertoire, the book aims to inspire new ways of thinking about how choirs organize their daily tasks. The collaborative community that surrounds a choir includes conductors, music educators, church choir directors, board members, volunteers, staff, administrators, and university students in music education and nonprofit arts management degree programs.

It is as performance that music is loved, understood, and consumed, yet musicologists have traditionally treated it as a kind of text. They have seen meaning as written into the music, implying that ...
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It is as performance that music is loved, understood, and consumed, yet musicologists have traditionally treated it as a kind of text. They have seen meaning as written into the music, implying that performance merely reproduces what is already there: this paradigm of reproduction has prevented musicology from adequately engaging with performance. Beyond the Score is a thoroughgoing attempt to reconceive music as performance, in other words as a real-time practice that affords the production of meaning. That means rethinking familiar assumptions and developing new approaches. Focusing primarily but not exclusively on the Western “art” tradition, the book explores perspectives that range from close listening to computational analysis, from ethnography to the study of recordings, and from the social relations constructed through performance to the performing (and listening) body. It also has a strong historical emphasis, extending from the early days of recording to contemporary digital culture, and a number of themes weave through it. These include the relationship between the written and the oral in musical culture, and the need to move on from thinking based on the paradigm of reproduction to a semiotic approach grounded on the production of meaning. While the principal claim of the book is that thinking based on the idea of music as text has hampered the academic understanding of music, the book argues that it has also made the practices of performance less creative than they might be, and the book explores how we might escape from the textualist straitjacket.Less

Beyond the Score : Music as Performance

Nicholas Cook

Published in print: 2014-01-28

It is as performance that music is loved, understood, and consumed, yet musicologists have traditionally treated it as a kind of text. They have seen meaning as written into the music, implying that performance merely reproduces what is already there: this paradigm of reproduction has prevented musicology from adequately engaging with performance. Beyond the Score is a thoroughgoing attempt to reconceive music as performance, in other words as a real-time practice that affords the production of meaning. That means rethinking familiar assumptions and developing new approaches. Focusing primarily but not exclusively on the Western “art” tradition, the book explores perspectives that range from close listening to computational analysis, from ethnography to the study of recordings, and from the social relations constructed through performance to the performing (and listening) body. It also has a strong historical emphasis, extending from the early days of recording to contemporary digital culture, and a number of themes weave through it. These include the relationship between the written and the oral in musical culture, and the need to move on from thinking based on the paradigm of reproduction to a semiotic approach grounded on the production of meaning. While the principal claim of the book is that thinking based on the idea of music as text has hampered the academic understanding of music, the book argues that it has also made the practices of performance less creative than they might be, and the book explores how we might escape from the textualist straitjacket.

This volume considers what a more inclusive, dynamic, and socially engaged curriculum of musical study might look like in universities. Its goal is to create dialogue among faculty, administrators, ...
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This volume considers what a more inclusive, dynamic, and socially engaged curriculum of musical study might look like in universities. Its goal is to create dialogue among faculty, administrators, and students about what the future of college music instruction should be and how to transition to new paradigms. Critiques and calls for reform have existed for decades, but few publications have offered concrete suggestions as to how things might be done differently. This book suggests new concepts or guiding principles that might be used to reconceive applied music education at the university level and, based on existing experiments taking place nationally and internationally, how such principles might be implemented in practical terms. The book’s essays concentrate primarily on changes to performance degrees rather than other subdisciplines since the former constitute the center of activity in most institutions. Ethnomusicologists feature prominently among the contributors, but the volume also includes input from those with specialization in music education, theory/composition, professional performance, and administration.Less

College Music Curricula for a New Century

Published in print: 2017-05-01

This volume considers what a more inclusive, dynamic, and socially engaged curriculum of musical study might look like in universities. Its goal is to create dialogue among faculty, administrators, and students about what the future of college music instruction should be and how to transition to new paradigms. Critiques and calls for reform have existed for decades, but few publications have offered concrete suggestions as to how things might be done differently. This book suggests new concepts or guiding principles that might be used to reconceive applied music education at the university level and, based on existing experiments taking place nationally and internationally, how such principles might be implemented in practical terms. The book’s essays concentrate primarily on changes to performance degrees rather than other subdisciplines since the former constitute the center of activity in most institutions. Ethnomusicologists feature prominently among the contributors, but the volume also includes input from those with specialization in music education, theory/composition, professional performance, and administration.

This book addresses the needs of teacher-educators seeking to include composition pedagogy in music education curricula. Though several decades of scholarship have examined the processes and products ...
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This book addresses the needs of teacher-educators seeking to include composition pedagogy in music education curricula. Though several decades of scholarship have examined the processes and products of young composers and offered insight to their work, many teachers still report a significant degree of trepidation when asked to lead students in composition activities. This book provides guidance for developing pre-service and in-service teachers ability to confidently and effectively facilitate composition study in PreK-12 settings. Issues that frame the volume include why composition should be part of music education, and by extension, music teacher education; research bases in creativity and children's composition; and the changing nature of compositional practices in contemporary culture. Drawing on both research and practice, chapters provide models for leading composition study in elementary general music, choral and instrumental ensembles, and songwriting classes. Guidance is offered for those working with special needs populations and gifted-and-talented students, as well as those interested in expanding experiences beyond the classroom via technology. Moreover, specific programmatic approaches for addressing the professional development of pre-service and in-service teachers are offered in detail so that music teacher-educators may create environments where composition's potential to enliven and invigorate contemporary practices in music education can be fully embraced.Less

Composing our Future : Preparing Music Educators to Teach Composition

Published in print: 2013-01-18

This book addresses the needs of teacher-educators seeking to include composition pedagogy in music education curricula. Though several decades of scholarship have examined the processes and products of young composers and offered insight to their work, many teachers still report a significant degree of trepidation when asked to lead students in composition activities. This book provides guidance for developing pre-service and in-service teachers ability to confidently and effectively facilitate composition study in PreK-12 settings. Issues that frame the volume include why composition should be part of music education, and by extension, music teacher education; research bases in creativity and children's composition; and the changing nature of compositional practices in contemporary culture. Drawing on both research and practice, chapters provide models for leading composition study in elementary general music, choral and instrumental ensembles, and songwriting classes. Guidance is offered for those working with special needs populations and gifted-and-talented students, as well as those interested in expanding experiences beyond the classroom via technology. Moreover, specific programmatic approaches for addressing the professional development of pre-service and in-service teachers are offered in detail so that music teacher-educators may create environments where composition's potential to enliven and invigorate contemporary practices in music education can be fully embraced.

The strong desire for knowledge and musical honesty sends musicians to the fortepiano—looking back to impact how to move forward. This book uncovers and examines eighteenth-century philosophical ...
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The strong desire for knowledge and musical honesty sends musicians to the fortepiano—looking back to impact how to move forward. This book uncovers and examines eighteenth-century philosophical beliefs and fundamental principles surrounding Classical Era performance practices, c. 1750–1800. Affekt and “good taste,” the foundation on which the style is based, set the tone throughout the book. The Viennese five-octave fortepiano is introduced and compared to the modern piano. Eighteenth-century music notational language is examined and explained, as well as compared and contrasted to modern understanding. Tools (rather than rules) are revealed to get at the heart of an eighteenth-century sound aesthetic. These relevant tools make comprehensible what may have been baffling: application to modern playing. This book provides synthesis of primary sources and scholarly interpretations of eighteenth-century performance practice; specific answers to performance questions regarding period influences on the modern piano, including technique, dynamics, articulation, rhythm, ornamentation, and pedaling; and sample model lessons to demonstrate application of the style on the modern piano. Over a hundred music examples are presented to illustrate concepts. Each music example has been recorded and is presented in three instructive versions: (a) an uninfluenced modern interpretation on a Steinway M piano, (b) an influenced rendition on a 1978 Belt-Walter fortepiano replica of a c. 1780s five-octave Anton Walter fortepiano, and (c) a reconciled version demonstrating how the book influences delivery on the modern piano. The goal is to afford modern performers the freedom to craft an authentic, personal, historically informed performance style.Less

Discoveries from the Fortepiano : A Manual for Beginners and Seasoned Performers

Donna Louise Gunn

Published in print: 2015-12-01

The strong desire for knowledge and musical honesty sends musicians to the fortepiano—looking back to impact how to move forward. This book uncovers and examines eighteenth-century philosophical beliefs and fundamental principles surrounding Classical Era performance practices, c. 1750–1800. Affekt and “good taste,” the foundation on which the style is based, set the tone throughout the book. The Viennese five-octave fortepiano is introduced and compared to the modern piano. Eighteenth-century music notational language is examined and explained, as well as compared and contrasted to modern understanding. Tools (rather than rules) are revealed to get at the heart of an eighteenth-century sound aesthetic. These relevant tools make comprehensible what may have been baffling: application to modern playing. This book provides synthesis of primary sources and scholarly interpretations of eighteenth-century performance practice; specific answers to performance questions regarding period influences on the modern piano, including technique, dynamics, articulation, rhythm, ornamentation, and pedaling; and sample model lessons to demonstrate application of the style on the modern piano. Over a hundred music examples are presented to illustrate concepts. Each music example has been recorded and is presented in three instructive versions: (a) an uninfluenced modern interpretation on a Steinway M piano, (b) an influenced rendition on a 1978 Belt-Walter fortepiano replica of a c. 1780s five-octave Anton Walter fortepiano, and (c) a reconciled version demonstrating how the book influences delivery on the modern piano. The goal is to afford modern performers the freedom to craft an authentic, personal, historically informed performance style.

Experience and meaning in music performance is a multi-authored work that both draws on and contributes to current debates in a wide range of disciplines, including ethnomusicology, musicology, ...
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Experience and meaning in music performance is a multi-authored work that both draws on and contributes to current debates in a wide range of disciplines, including ethnomusicology, musicology, psychology, cognitive science and several other fields The eight distinct contributions focus in different ways on its three main themes: Experience, Meaning and Performance. Performance defines the principal object of study as the moment of production—of sound or of meaning—rather than on music as model, ideal or product. Experience focuses attention away from the ideal and the ideological and towards the phenomenal: what people actually do, and what they feel, while engaging in music. Meaning, too, is understood in a broad sense. On one hand, authors examine actions that are musically successful and socially consequential, but whose initial ‘meaning’ owes little to linguistic mediation. On the other hand, the authors retain a place for how discourse shapes music: for what people try to put into a performance, and what they think they (and others) ought to get out of it. Other themes impart cut across those of the volume’s title. Three chapters examine gesture and nonverbal forms of communication, illustrating how experiences of listening, performing and musical collaboration are shaped by movement and gesture. Another trio of essays focuses on elements of temporal organisation in music, particularly pulse, rhythmic patterning, metre and groove. These chapters explore how musicians from different traditions entrain to regular patterns of pulsation in music.Less

Experience and Meaning in Music Performance

Published in print: 2013-11-29

Experience and meaning in music performance is a multi-authored work that both draws on and contributes to current debates in a wide range of disciplines, including ethnomusicology, musicology, psychology, cognitive science and several other fields The eight distinct contributions focus in different ways on its three main themes: Experience, Meaning and Performance. Performance defines the principal object of study as the moment of production—of sound or of meaning—rather than on music as model, ideal or product. Experience focuses attention away from the ideal and the ideological and towards the phenomenal: what people actually do, and what they feel, while engaging in music. Meaning, too, is understood in a broad sense. On one hand, authors examine actions that are musically successful and socially consequential, but whose initial ‘meaning’ owes little to linguistic mediation. On the other hand, the authors retain a place for how discourse shapes music: for what people try to put into a performance, and what they think they (and others) ought to get out of it. Other themes impart cut across those of the volume’s title. Three chapters examine gesture and nonverbal forms of communication, illustrating how experiences of listening, performing and musical collaboration are shaped by movement and gesture. Another trio of essays focuses on elements of temporal organisation in music, particularly pulse, rhythmic patterning, metre and groove. These chapters explore how musicians from different traditions entrain to regular patterns of pulsation in music.

This book is not so much about how to teach as it is about how to think as a teacher confronting a variety of learning challenges. The challenge for music education, for music teachers, is to create ...
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This book is not so much about how to teach as it is about how to think as a teacher confronting a variety of learning challenges. The challenge for music education, for music teachers, is to create meaningful learning opportunities for all children, preparing them to participate happily and successfully in rewarding music experiences throughout their lives. The principal features that characterize such experiences are universal in the sense that they are applicable in ways that engage diverse groups of children in common experiences that are valued by their teachers, their parents, and their peers. This book focuses on a universal approach that recognizes the needs of individual students and includes learning environments in which all students participate in the same activities, experience personal success, and contribute to the success of their classmates. The four chapters focus on the uniqueness of children, biases, and stereotyping; designing meaningful music programs; using governing principles to guide decisions (e.g., increasing positive peer interactions, fostering self-determination, collaboration), and accomplishing music goals using universal strategies. The book provides context with a historical timeline and chapters tracing the development of laws and significant changes in teaching practices, including those concerning music and the disabilities movement, laws, and music education.Less

Including Everyone : Creating Music Classrooms Where All Children Learn

Judith A. Jellison

Published in print: 2015-02-03

This book is not so much about how to teach as it is about how to think as a teacher confronting a variety of learning challenges. The challenge for music education, for music teachers, is to create meaningful learning opportunities for all children, preparing them to participate happily and successfully in rewarding music experiences throughout their lives. The principal features that characterize such experiences are universal in the sense that they are applicable in ways that engage diverse groups of children in common experiences that are valued by their teachers, their parents, and their peers. This book focuses on a universal approach that recognizes the needs of individual students and includes learning environments in which all students participate in the same activities, experience personal success, and contribute to the success of their classmates. The four chapters focus on the uniqueness of children, biases, and stereotyping; designing meaningful music programs; using governing principles to guide decisions (e.g., increasing positive peer interactions, fostering self-determination, collaboration), and accomplishing music goals using universal strategies. The book provides context with a historical timeline and chapters tracing the development of laws and significant changes in teaching practices, including those concerning music and the disabilities movement, laws, and music education.

PRINTED FROM OXFORD SCHOLARSHIP ONLINE (www.oxfordscholarship.com). (c) Copyright Oxford University Press, 2017. All Rights Reserved. Under the terms of the licence agreement, an individual user may print out a PDF of a single chapter of a monograph in OSO for personal use (for details see http://www.oxfordscholarship.com/page/privacy-policy).date: 19 March 2018